Inferno

The path to the house was overgrown. The cobblestone path was cracked, narrow, and such was the vegetation, the group was forced to travel in single file. Or at least, the guardsmen that Tisaren was accompanying seemed to think so, opening the wooden gate and entering the garden.

"I could get rid of this you know," Tisaren said, calling out to the humans. "Simple fire spell, perhaps a slashing one. If the woman's who you say she is, I think the garden is the least of our worries."

They ignored her. That was humans for you, the elf reflected. Ears so small and helmets so big, they seemed to be only listening half the time.

"Very well."

But humans, as the wizard knew, also had quite a bit of gold on their hands. Certainly the ones in control of their lands did. So as she followed the group down the path to the thatched shack before them, Tisaren remained silent. Her form was nimble enough to avoid the garden, and the men-at-arms she was accompanying were protected from it by the clothing and armour they wore.

"In the name of Baron Elbridge, open up!" the one called Osea shouted, hammering on the door.

Tisaren sighed. The sergeant turned to face her.

"Something wrong, Elf?"

"Oh, not really," the wizard murmured. "But I have to wonder about your choice of actions here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, this can either go two ways now," Tisaren said, turning around and taking a rose off one of the bushes, taking care to ignore the thorns. "The occupant of this dwelling now knows you're here."

"So?"

"So, if she's a witch, we've lost the element of surprise, and we'll have a tougher fight on our hands."

"I can't just barge the door down," Osea protested.

"Course you can," the elf said, still playing with the rose. "If she's a witch, we get the jump on her. If not, you apologise profusely, your master agrees to pay for the door, and looking at the state of this shack, I think our so-called witch needs all the renovations she can get."

Osea stared at her. So did the other two men with him.

"Never mind."

Tisaren wondered if she should turn back. She'd been more than happy to accept the baron's coin to help his men apprehend the crazy woman on the edge of the village that was supposedly a witch, waylaying travellers on the nearby forest road and taking everything from them but their lives. Any additional payment would only be granted if the woman did turn out to be a rogue magic user, and her own magic was used to subdue her. But as Osea continued hammering on the door and making declarations, it seemed that the "witch" wasn't answering. Given the lack of any activity from the shack, smoke from its chimney or otherwise, Tisaren doubted she was even in residence.

I should leave, the elf thought to herself. This isn't going anywhere.

"Alright, that's it."

Hang on…

"Knock the door down."

Tisaren looked up at the sergeant. He looked back at her, a wild look in his eyes, in stark contrast to the glassy look of one of his men beside him. Dinu, if she remembered correctly.

"You realize that this is me using magic, right?" the elf asked, sliding the rose into a breach in her traveling garments as she walked up. "It'll cost you."

"Fine," Osea snapped. "Just open it."

Smirking, the wizard walked up to the door, the sergeant's two subordinates on either side of it. The sergeant was probably aware that this was a fool's errand. He probably wanted to do his duty with as little collateral damage as possible. And deciding to indulge him, Tisaren started channelling an unlocking spell. She wouldn't have minded using something more forceful, but…well, she was getting coin regardless. It didn't seem fair to anyone to do a bona fide break in right now.

As such, the elf raised her hands, ready to utter the incantation. As such, her eyes focussed on the door. As such, she saw something out of the corner of her eye…Dinu, his eyes glassy, grasping his sword. Thrusting it towards her…

"No!"

It wasn't the most eloquent response in the world, nor was her act of simply falling backwards onto the ground to avoid the man's blade. Looking up from the cobblestone, it was an action she regretted. Because while she'd avoided Dinu's thrust, the man-at-arms on the other side of the door, the one whose name escaped her, hadn't been so lucky.

Oh no…

The man looked at the blade jutting from his stomach, Dinu, then the cobblestone as he fell onto it, his blood seeping into the cracks between stones. Dinu simply turned to face the elf before him. Brought his shortsword down towards her.

Not this time!

On instinct, Tisaren reached for her staff and deflected the stroke, quickly hitting the man with the butt of it, causing him to stagger backwards. The glassy look in his eyes, the slow movements…it was mind control. The witch was a cipher. She'd taken control of Dinu, killed one of the men, and as Tisaren looked back as Osea, slowly making his way towards her, his own sword drawn…

Oh no…

She'd taken control of his mind as well. Enough to force him to bring his own sword down, as Dinu did the same.

They both missed.

They'd come close though, and the elf felt a chill run down her spine as blood seeped out from her right arm, where one of the blades had caught her. But she'd evaded their main strokes, courtesy of casting an air spell downwards, the air building up and propelling her into the air, evading the humans' strokes and allowing her to land by the gate. Osea and Dinu were still facing her, but with this amount of distance, she could easily incapacitate them.

"Stay back," Tisaren warned them as they slowly marched towards her. "Don't make me…do…"

Do what, though? She doubted that she could break the mind control through some dispelling technique. Not being a druid, she couldn't manipulate the foliage either. It suddenly occurred to her that all her techniques were basically attack-orientated, or ones used to protect herself. To save others…

A sorrowful look in her eyes, Tisaren raised her staff. The best she could do was blow the men back against the hut, hopefully incapacitating them. It wasn't the best of plans, but-

What the-?

And it was a plan that was thrown into jeopardy as one of the vines wrapped itself around her right arm, causing her to drop her staff.

No! Not now! Not-

Tisaren fell backwards as a vine grabbed her left leg. She reached for her staff with her left hand, but another vine grabbed that as well.

"Get…off…me!"

The vines didn't respond. The men kept marching. The elf tried to kick out at Osea, but her right leg was caught in a vine, stopping the motion. Osea marched. Osea brought his sword down.

"Nooooooo!"

When Tisaren awoke, she concluded she was still alive.

"Ah, you're awake."

And that she was captured.

The elf groaned. Her head hurt. Her body felt limp. The scratch on her arm that one of the swords had made was still bleeding, a small pool of blood forming on the floor of the house that she was in. And with her wrists and ankles being bound in rope, she couldn't do anything about it.

"This is yours, I believe."

Tisaren watched as a rose was placed in her lap. The same rose that she had picked up from the witch's garden. The same witch that no doubt held her prisoner, and…looking at the interior of the hut, and at the woman before her, didn't look like a witch at all.

"You'll be able to have more you know," the woman said.

"Wh…what?" Tisaren asked.

"Roses. Course you'll be dead soon, but if you like, I can send some roses for company."

"How kind of you…"

"Well, you saw my garden. It's overgrown. The less flowers the better."

The wizard remained silent. There was a key word in the woman's sentences. And it wasn't "roses." Yet as the elf looked around, the words were briefly forgotten.

The shack was simple, but not vile. Some dust, some cobwebs, but for someone who used magic for her own ends, and was happy to take control of minds, there wasn't anything sinister about it. No skulls, no ravens, and its writing desk was bereft of both. And at the woman before her, she looked just as normal. Short black hair, modest clothing, teeth that were slightly crooked, but no more so than the average peasant.

"I take it that since you're here, the baron's on to me."

Tisaren nodded. She could have held her cards close to her breast, but just staring at the woman…was it mind control, or some variant that made her lower her guard? Or was she letting her emotional barriers down on her own accord?

"Well, that won't do. I'll have to move then."

And with that, the cipher moved over to one of her shelves. A sack was nearby.

"What's your name?" the elf asked her.

"Lilith."

"Well, Lilith…" Tisaren said, choosing her words carefully. "I take it that you know why the baron's interested in you."

"Stealing from travellers," Lilith said, her back still to the elf.

"Right…" the wizard answered. "And until recently, you managed to do it without killing anyone."

"I still haven't," the human answered. "Those men killed themselves."

"You possessed their minds."

Lilith turned round to face her.

"I know what you are," the elf said firmly. "A cipher. A magic user who specializes in mind control. A magic user that also apparently knows how to get vines to do your bidding, but at the end of the day, you use your powers for your own ends."

"And you don't?"

Tisaren stared at her. Even as Lilith knelt before her.

"My dear, I read your mind as my stooges brought you in here. And I'll have you know, we're not as different as you believe."

"That's a lie."

"Is it? Then tell me, why are you here?"

"To…apprehend you."

"That's not why. That's what lets you accomplish why." Lilith smiled. "No, Tisaren, why you're here is that this is what you do. You get a job. You do it. You were prepared to knock down my door for the sole reason of getting some coin."

The elf remained silent.

"So at the end of the day, we're quite similar," Lilith continued. "We use our magic for our own ends. To get what we need."

"I still help people," Tisaren protested feebly.

"Really? Then why are you helping the baron and not any of his subjects? Tell me Wizard, if a peasant came up to you and asked for aid, offering nothing but their gratitude, would you help them? Would you have spared me a second thought if there wasn't some coin waiting for you?"

The elf didn't have an answer for that.

"Well, no matter," Lilith said, turning around and returning to her sack and lighting a candle. "Because you're going to help me anyway."

"How?" Tisaren asked weakly.

"Simple. You go to where your friends are. Already dead. In the woods."

Tisaren lowered her gaze. She'd dared to hope that Lilith had spared them.

"And you claim responsibility. That you were the witch that's been preying on people."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because thanks to my magic, you won't have a choice."

Another chill ran down Tisaren's spine. And it wasn't due to the blood loss.

"I have to admit, your mental barriers are stronger than most people's," Lilith said, again crouching down before the elf, candle in hand. "That's why I couldn't control you earlier. But now, with just the two of us…"

She trailed off. Or was it her mind, Tisaren wondered? Already she felt faint. Already she felt her will slipping away, as Lilith's brown eyes bore into her blue ones. Her black hair eclipsing her blonde. Her tanned skin becoming like her pale own…the candle…hovering in the room before her.

The candle!

Tisaren tried to speak. Lilith grinned. With greater effort, Tisaren spoke. Lilith still grinned.

She stopped grinning when the candle's flame erupted in a burst of fire.

"Gahhh!"

Lilith screamed as her hair caught alight, dropping the candle as she did so, its ember now an inferno. Keeping her eyes on it and still chanting, the elf amplified the flame, rolling aside as a jet of it slammed into the wall beside her.

"You…monster!"

Monster? Tisaren wondered. Is that what I am?

She didn't know. But gazing at Lilith, she reflected that at least if she was a monster, she didn't look like one. Thankfully bereft of a face covered in burns.

"I'll kill you! I'll-"

Lilith rushed over. Tisaren rolled towards her, tripping her up. Her eyes focussed on the candle again, more flame errupting and adding to the inferno that was building in the hut. Screaming, Lilith got up and jumped onto her, closing her hands round the elf's throat. Her face ugly, even without the blistering skin.

"I'm not finished," Lilith hissed. "But you…you were finished the moment you walked into my garden."

Tisaren spat at her. Lilith recoiled and screamed as the saliva hit her blistering skin. It was the opportunity the elf needed to roll across the room, using her momentum to get out through the door, weakened by the flame.

A sword was there. Dropped by one of the soldiers.

Tisaren fought back tears as she tried to cut the ropes binding her wrists with its blade. It must have been the sword of the man-at-arms that Dinu killed. The one whose name she didn't know. A man who'd died, but in doing so, had given her a chance to live.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"

Lilith charged at her. Tisaren cut her ropes. Grabbed the sword.

"Kill you! Kill-"

Thrust the sword upwards into Lilith's stomach, impaling her.

"You won't kill me," the elf whispered, again meeting Lilith's gaze. "No-one else is dying today."

Rolling back, Tisaren used both her legs to kick the cipher back into the flame.

"No-one but you."

Using the sword, the elf cut the ropes binding her legs.

She quickly used them to get out of the garden.

A garden that, in turn, was consumed by the flame.

Even as the inferno raged, Tisaren still felt cold. And yet it wasn't due to the night breeze.

She hadn't talked much over the last minutes. It hadn't taken long for the baron and some of his outriders to reach the dwelling once they saw the flame, and it had taken an even shorter amount of time to explain what had happened. So, having been provided with her payment and a salve for her arm, Tisaren was free to go. Let Elbridge deal with the inferno. Let him deal with the bodies in the forest. With whatever words and compensation he might offer their families. Certainly those were the words her ears had picked up above the roar of the blaze.

"Let me come with you."

And turning to face her as he headed for his horse, Elbridge heard Tisaren in turn.

"Let me come with you," the elf repeated. "The bodies need to be recovered."

"You've done enough," the baron murmured, getting on his mount. His words really meaning "I'm not letting you come because I don't want to pay you anymore."

The elf stepped in front of his horse. "I'm not asking for payment. I just…want to finish this."

"Your job's done, the bitch is dead," Elbridge murmured. "Your services are no longer required."

The wizard stepped aside as the baron spurred his mount on, taking some of his outriders with him. Tisaren could tell that this was just a formality to him. Just as dealing with Lilith had been formality right until…

Until I saw her mirror.

Tisaren told herself she was different. She told herself she would never stoop to the cipher's level. She told herself, as she fingered the sword she'd used, that she'd eventually remember the name of the third man-at-arms. The one whose death had allowed her to live. Who might have still been alive if she'd just taken the blow that was meant for her.

Still fingering the blade, Tisaren looked to the garden. At the roses. Burning. Withered.

It was how she felt herself.

Update (27/10/12): Corrected typos.

Update (10/11/2012): Made adjustments as per feedback.